


Hey! It's Me!

by insomniac7809



Series: Kathleen Shepard [4]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Destroy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Humor, Post-Game(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-29 20:00:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6391249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insomniac7809/pseuds/insomniac7809
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While the crew hope for Shepard to recover, they get a visit from a fan</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hey! It's Me!

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to A Vigil, not added as a chapter because of the rather sharp difference in tone.

“...so Kasumi started recording,” Garrus was saying, “when Shepard is rushing two Eclipse mercs, in full kit except the helmet, while she's wearing that little black dress and running in heels. Takes down the first one before he's even turned around, barehanded. The other one's still trying to get his gun up when Shepard jumps the desk and starts beating him to death with the butt of her pistol.”

Ashley was shaking her head and laughing. “Okay, you have to be shitting me—oh. Sorry, Ma'am.”

Admiral Hannah Shepard gave a thin smile. “I was married to a marine for twenty years, Commander Williams. You'll need to do better than that to shock me.”

“Uh, yes Ma'am.”

“You don't need to call me 'Ma'am' in here, either.”

“...aye-aye.”

“Garrus isn't lying.” Liara was sitting quietly in the corner of the hospital room, listening while the others exchanged stories. “I've seen the recording.”

“The best part,” Garrus pressed on, “is that afterward, Shepard's trying to catch her breath and stand in the heels, and Kasumi's voice comes in from behind the camera, and says 'You know, Shep, the room is soundproof. You could have just shot them.' And Shepard just turns at the camera, with this _look_ -'”

One of the marines standing guard—Chu, her name was—opened the doors to the hospital and gave a salute. “Ma'am. Someone else is asking to see her. He seems like one of the crazies, but his name's listed as related to the Crucible project.”

“Guys! Hey!” The would-be visitor was standing behind another marine, waving frantically while the big man blocked him from coming any closer. “Guys, it's me! Conrad Verner!”

“Oh dear Lord.” Ashley put her face into her palms, avoiding eye contact.

Hannah's lips pursed into a tight line, looking at Williams, then the others, then to the man trying to get their attention. “I don't know him.” 

“He's a freak, Ma'am. He calls himself Commander Shepard's biggest fan. He runs one of those weird extranet sites on the crew. He posts pictures of his shrine.”

“Dangerous?” Hannah pulled up the glowing omni-tool on her arm and started scrolling through lists, looking over the Crucible's list of names and associated clearances.

Liara shook her head. “Conrad Verner took a bullet for Shepard during the war. Or tried to. He would never do anything to harm her.”

“He tried to?”

“The gun was sabotaged, but he couldn't know that at the time.”

“Anyway,” Garrus cut in, “before he goes, we're going to have to let him in or shoot him. I could go either way.”

Hannah stood, looking up from the omnitool to the man at the barrier. “Hold on. That's Doctor Verner? Let him through.”

Garrus looked to Ashley, head cocked to one side. “Doctor?” The marine gave him a hopeless shrug.

Conrad hurried toward the door, but was intercepted halfway there by the admiral. “Doctor Verner? Rear Admiral Hannah Shepard. Let me say that it is an honor to shake your hand.” She extended her hand with military precision, and was rewarded Conrad giving a frenetic jerking at her wrist.

“Oh. Oh, wow. I mean, of course I know who you are, Admiral ma'am. You're Shepard's mom. I mean, you know, I know you're also Shepard. I mean, the honor's all mine-”

“Nonsense. I'll admit that the paper and the schematics were over my head by a parsec, but you should have seen the way the science crew lit up when they saw it. You're a damned hero in my book, son.”

Liara was sitting with a faint smile on her face, while Ashley and Garrus stared, equally lost. Fortunately, Conrad objected before either of them felt compelled to.

“Oh, no, Admiral ma'am. I'm not a hero. I tried to be, for a while, but Shepard showed me that. I was on the Crucible, for, you know. Both times. I just hid in my office the first time while Shepard was saving us all. For a while I thought I'd start doing different, but when the Reapers came, I just took the Shepards and hid again.”

“The Shepards?” Garrus asked, even if he wasn't quite sure why.

“Oh.” Conrad reached a hand to scratch at the back of his neck while he looked away with an embarrassed expression. “Just what I call the kids I've been looking after. Refugees, you know. Mostly orphans. I knew I couldn't do anything to stop the Reapers when they came. I just rounded them all up and took them into hiding with me. Like I said, I know I'm not a-”

“Doctor,” Hannah said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “They say they'll be studying the blast for longer than I'll be alive. They can barely say anything for sure. But they also tell me there's every chance— _every chance_ —that your schematics made the difference between...” There was a catch, just for a moment, in the admiral's voice, but she pushed through. “Let me thank you, son. You're a hero in my book.”

There was a moment of silence, Hannah Shepard standing rigid, Garrus, Ashley, and Conrad with nearly identical expressions of dumbfounded shock. Until Conrad snapped his mouth shut, jutted his chin, and snapped into a child's attempt at a salute. “Yes ma'am.”

“Would you like to see her?”

“Of course.”

Hannah Shepard lead Conrad to the Commander's bed. Liara was still smiling, faintly, at the expressions on Garrus and Ashley's faces.

The quiet stretched out for a moment longer before Garrus spoke up. “The evil Shepard clone was still weirder.”

Ashley gave him a snort. “ _Barely._ ”


End file.
